Old Friends
by Starlite1
Summary: a little adventure in a rather familiar place, with quite a few old faces....... heaps of spoilers for Nemesis


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the trek characters. They're Paramount and Rick Berman's property, and I just brought them out to play.  
  
It had been a rough day for Deanna. Ever since she and Will had come back to the Enterprise, she had been running flat out.  
  
Not that she wasn't happy to be back on the ship which had been her home for eight years. It felt wonderful to be back. Of course, she had loved it on the Manhattan, but it just hadn't been the Enterprise. When Captain Picard had finally decided to take the promotion to the admiralty, he had made sure that Will had been the first in line to take his place.  
  
She flipped down onto the bed. Just as her eyelids had shut, red sirens blared into life. Instantly, she flew up off the bed , and was out of the door in ten seconds.  
  
"Stasis Report!" Will Riker ordered. The young Lieutenant at the helm glanced down at her console, "Long range sensors have just detected a ship on long range sensors." She did a double take, " Sir, it appears to be borg." "What the hell?! I thought that the borg were destroyed by Admiral Janeway!" "Well it appears that they're back." Joseph Gregories muttered. Just then, Deanna came tearing out of the turbolift. She made a beeline to her chair at Riker's side. "What's the red alert about?" she asked worriedly. "The sensors have detected a Borg ship." Riker told his wife. "Captain, the Borg ship has changed course. It's heading directly towards up." "Mr. Worf. Arm photon torpedoes, and charge phasers. " Riker ordered. "Done sir." Worf said from behind the command center. "Onscreen." Riker ordered. On the screen, the horrid image of a borg cube came into view. The view was the sign of everything that the federation stood against. Within that cube, horrors untold lurked. "Sir, it's charging it's weapons!" Worf shouted. A massive shudder passed through the entire ship. "Shields down to sixty percent!" Worf announced. "And all that with only one hit." Gregories said, "Suggest that we find somewhere to hide, sir." "Acknowledged. As I recall, we're rather close to the dead zone. If we go in there, than they'll be blinded, with absolutely no way to reach the collective." "but so will we." Deanna pointed out. "I think that it's worth that risk. Helm, plot a course towards the Dead zone. Warp eight. Engage." The mighty starship leaped forward, and entered the cloud of green mist, from which no signal would be able to penetrate.  
  
*******  
  
All around the ship, pieces of debris floated, an all to vivid reminder of what had occurred here for them just over a year ago. Pieces of the destroyed warbird floated right across the screen. "So now what do we do?" Beverly Crusher asked from beside Deanna. Riker spun round in his chair, "Now, we wait."  
  
An hour later, The bridge crew had been changed. Troi, Riker, and Gregories were still sitting, tense as cats. The turbolift doors whooshed open, and out stepped Geordi La Forge. "Captain, we've taken some damage to the left support pylon. I'd like to go and have a look at it." He sighed, "This darn cloud isn't letting me get any kind of readings that I'd trust, and we can't go to warp until it's fixed." "Considering that we've go nothing better to do, go right ahead, Mr. La Forge." As Geordi went off the bridge, Riker couldn't help but feel a little trepidation at the thought of sending an EVA out there. There were still pieces of Shinzon's ship floating round. It made Riker nervous. Those pieces were easily deflected with the deflector, but it would be different for the EVA team. He sighed, and went back to revising his data on the borg cubes.  
  
Out on the skin of the ship, the cloud looked even more earrie than it did on the viewscreen. Above him, wreckage from the battle which had cost him his best friend floated. He made his way along, and came to the left pylon. There wasn't that much damage, but the damage was there. Sighing, he signaled to the rest of his team to move around the damaged plate. They knew what to do. Using phasers, they cut away the ruined piecce of decking plate. Geordi hit his communicator, "Ok, beam in a new plate." Instantly, a piece of duranium came into existence in the hole where the old piece had only just recently been. The team moved quickly to bolt the new piece into place.  
  
As soon as they were done, they began to make their way towards the airlock once again. On the way back, Geordi had the sense to take a few tricorder readings. He watched the screen, not really seeing what was there. But something caught his attention. It was probrably just a sensor blip. He looked closer. There it was again. He looked out towards where the errratic reading had come from. He hit his communicator, "Worf, I'm detecting a slight trace of positronic energy off the port bow. Can you confirm?" He could scarcely believe it. "No, I'm not- Wait! Yes, I'm detecting a slight trace! I'm going to try and lock onto it." "Understood. Bring it in with a tractor beam. You don't want to try and beam it." He didn't want to get his hopes up. He continued to walk. His stomach churned at the thought of what may be lurking inside. He was startled when his communicator beeped. Worf's deep voice rumbled, "Sir we have it, and I think that you'd better come and see this." Geordi's heart skipped a beat, "On my way, Worf."  
  
*********** After de-suiting, Geordi had raced down the corridor, and had come face-to- face with Riker, Troi, Crusher and the new first officer Gregories. Knowing what it meant to Geordi, Riker signaled for him to go first. Geordi needed no more asking, He went through the door to the shuttle bay. On the floor, there was a heap of burnt and charred objects which looked rather farmiliar. They all raced over. Geordi gently turned it over, and gazed into the charred, mangled form. "Data!" he gasped. Data was charred, his skin peeled back to show his neural network. But here he lay. "We need to get him down to the sickbay!" Geordi said. Beverly was immediately into attack mode, " Somebody call ahead and get a neuroligist ready. We have to see if he's still able to function, and we need to do it quickly!" Geordi had a stretcher within half a minute, and, with the help of the other four, had lifted him onto the stretcher. Together, they rushed out of the shuttlebay, and were on their way to bring a good friend back to life.  
  
***********  
  
Beverly stood over the diagnostic table in the middle of the Sickbay. Some of the readings were rather puzzling. As near as she and the rest of the team could tell, his positronic brain was intact. As for the essence, the part that made the shell in front of her Data, only time would tell if that still remained. The doors whooshed open, and Geordi stepped into the bay. He came over to her "how is he?" he questioned. "As near as we're able to tell, his brain's intact. The only thing that we can do is to repair his body, and try and turn him back on." Beverly sighed, "Frankly, I can't promise anything. We may just be wasting time on this. But, in the end, I think that it'll be worth it. You ready to get your hands dirty?" "You bet."  
  
***************** Two weeks later  
  
Riker had always been an early riser. Unfortunately, Deanna wasn't. During their year of marriage, he had become an expert at slipping out of their bed without disturbing her. But things were different this morning. He rolled over, expecting to see her laying there, fast asleep. But the sheets were cold. She'd been up for quite a while. He instantly was out of bed, "Deanna?" he called, "where are you?" "In here!" she called from their bathroom. He immediately raced to the door (he'd very nearly shot right past it) Deanna was kneeling over the toilet bowl, "I'm all right, before you ask." She smiled, "but I think that I need to take a quick visit to Beverly before we go on duty-" she stopped abruptly and heaved into the bowl. "You sure that you're fine?" he asked worriedly. She laughed, "You bet. But I'm hungry. What do you want for breakfast?"  
  
In sickbay, Geordi was making the last adjustments to Data's emotion chip. He and Dr. Crusher had been working round the clock to get Data back. Now Beverly was in her office, doing a small amount of paperwork which she had been neglecting over the past week. The doors opened, and through the door, Will and Deanna stepped. Will gave Geordi a quick wink, and escorted Deanna through to Beverly's office. Geordi shrugged, and went back to work on Data.  
  
"So what seems to be the problem?" Beverly asked. Will laid a gentle hand on Deanna's back, and she said, "I woke up this morning, well before Will, feeling as sick as a dog. I spent the next twenty minutes retching into the toilet." Beverly's blue eyes twinkled, "I have a strong suspicion, but I'd still like to give you a quick checkup. It may just be a rather queer cold. But something tells me that it isn't." Beverly gently led Deanna out to one of the diagnostic beds, with Will trailing behind like a puppy. Deanna lay down, and swung the diagnostic shell over herself. The readings made Beverly smile. "Well, it looks like you're going to have to start thinking of names." Beverly said, Riker looked at her in absolute puzzlement, "Why? Why do we need to think of names?" "Because, Deanna, you're pregnant." Laughed Beverly. "What!?" ********* 


End file.
